Ventilating arrangement for the rooms of a building, especially of a stall, pigsty, fwl-house or the like



Jan. 16, 1968 KQHLMEYER ET AL 3,363,531

VENTILATING ARRANGEMENT FOR THE ROOMS OF A BUILDING, ESPECIALLY OF ASTALL, PIGSTY, FOWL-HOUSE OR THE LIKE E Filed 061;. 14, 1966 3Sheets-:Sheet l INVENTOR Jan. 16, 1968 KOHLMEYER ET AL 3,363,531

VENTILATING ARRANGEMENT FOR THE ROOMS OF A BUILDING. ESPECIALLY OF ASTALL, PIGSTY, FOWL-HOUSE OR THE LIKE Filed Oct. 14, 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet2 Jan. 16, 1968 H. KOHLMEYER ET AL 3,363,531

VENTILATING ARRANGEMENT FOR THE ROOMS OF A BUILDING, ESPECIALLY OF ASTALL, PIGSTY, FOWL-HOUSE OR THE LIKE Filed Oct. 14, 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet5 United States Patent 3,363,531 VENTILATING ARRANGEMENT FOR THE RGGMSOF A BUILDING, ESPEQIALLY OF A STALL, PIGSTY, FOWL-HQUSE QR THE LIKEHorst Kohlmeyer, Bremervorde, and Horst Spohr, Sahlenburg, Germany,assignors to Lohmann-Apparatebau K.G., Cuxhaven, Germany Filed Oct. 14,1966, Ser. No. 586,770 Claims. (Cl. 98-30) The invention relates to aventilation unit and arrangement for ventilating rooms of a building,especially of a stall, pigsty, fowl-house or the like, and constitutesan improvement and further development of the subject matter of my priorcorresponding patent application Ser. No. 422,166, filed Dec. 30, 1964,now Patent No. 3,302,548.

My prior patent application is directed to a ventilating devicecomprising a fresh air duct and a used air duct which are interconnectedinside the room of the building for the formation of a circulation duct,the fresh air intake opening and the used air exhaust opening thereofbeing arranged outside the building, the inlet opening of the used airduct equipped with a suction blower being disposed above the bottom ofthe room, while the supply air outlet opening forms the mouth of afunnel member continguous to the fresh air duct and directed obliquelytowards the ceiling, wherein the streams in the fresh air duct, in theused air duct, and in the circulation air duct are adapted to becontrolled by a pivotally supported flap valve in such a manner that thecirculation duct is opened in an extent proportionate to the extent inwhich the passage from the fresh-air intake opening to the supply airoutlet opening and the passage from the used air inlet opening to theused air exhaust opening are closed. Thus, in this arrangement, thefresh air is not taken-in directly by the blower but indirectly by thevacuum generated in the room of the building owing to the blower suckingthe used air from this room. Thus, in cold weather, in winter, coldfresh air may be mixed with heated used air from the room of thebuilding, in particular, the stall, pigsty, fowl-house or the like, inany desired proportions. The temperature balance is effected in theventilating device and not only in the room of the building.

Preferably, in accordance with my prior patent application, the funnelmember of the supply air outlet opening forms a duct graduallydecreasing in height towards the supply air outlet opening andincreasing in width in the horizontal direction, so that the supply airis discharged from the supply air outlet opening adjacent the ceiling ofthe room of the building in the form of a broad fan. In thisarrangement, the wall of the funnel member also may be formed in part bythe ceiling of the room of the building. It is recommendable to designthe funnel member in such a manner that a possibly large portion of theceiling extending around the fresh air duct is covered by the supply airleaving the funnel member.

The inlet opening of the used air duct is arranged at a certain distanceabove the bottom of the room of the building. The distance between thelower edge of the used air duct and the bottom of the room of thebuilding being approximately equal to the medium diameter of the usedair duct.

While thus the supply air owing to the vacuum generated in the room ofthe building by the blower is dis- 3,363,531 Patented Jan. 16, 1968 "icetributed essentially along the ceiling of the room of the building, theblower arranged in the used air duct sucks in used air approximatelybelow that point where the fresh air duct merges into its prefereablyfan-like funnel member. Under these circumstances, the supply air isequally distributed all over the room of the building without anydraught phenomena occurring in the individual places and, in particular,at the places above the bottom of the room of the building which isintended for use.

With the aid of the subject matter of my prior patent application thereis obtained with simplest means not only a ventilation of the room butit is also made possible to keep the room warm in dependence upon therespective outside temperature. In all those cases where comparativelylow outside temperatures may occur during winter time, it isrecommendable to provide a special heating source for elevating andmaintaining the temperature in the room on a desired value.

With high outside temperatures for example in high summer and intropical and subtropical countries, however, it may happen that theventilation along is not sufficient to maintain a desired climate in theroom of the building. It has also been found that in most of the casesmanual adjustment of the flap valve is insutficient to meet therespective requirements.

This problem is solved in the first place by the arrangement of spraynozzles in the fresh air duct which may be provided with pressurizedwater as a cooling fluid. Consequently, the fresh air upon entering theroom, as soon as the spray nozzles are provided with pressurized water,must pass through a curtain of sprayed cooling fluid. in thisarrangement, the provision of the nozzles with cooling fluid may becontrolled by means of a thermostat arranged in the room to beventilated, via a magnetic valve. In order to prevent fluid dropletsfrom being entrained in the entering fresh air stream, at least one mat,for instance of synthetic material, bast, or the like, may be arrangedbehind the spray nozzles, said mat being effective as a filter. In orderto improve the cooling effect, at least one similar mat effective as afilter may addition ally be arranged in front of the spray nozzleslooking in the direction of flow of the entering fresh air, said matbeing effective as a filter and adapted to be moistened by means ofcooling fluid; the moistening of this mat is preferably carried out inthat the spraying nozzles are directed to the mat, thus wetting it. Themats are for example made of a synthetic material with an inside meshsize of about 7 mm.

The device consisting of the spray nozzles and of the mats effective asfilters, for cooling and moistening the entering fresh air stream may bearranged in a downwardly opening fresh air lateral duct in an outerhousing provided at the outside wall of the building. To increase theflow cross sectional areas of the fresh air inlet path, also two suchfresh air ducts may be arranged symmetrically with respect to the usedair exhaust opening on the outside side of the wall of the room of thebuilding.

In order to control the proportion of used air circulated, the pivotallysupported air guiding flap valve is preferably actuated by means of aservo motor or the like in dependence upon the temperature with the aidof a thermostat and/or in dependence upon the humidity with the aid of ahygrometer in the room of the building to be ventilated. If theventilation of the room of a building is effected by several ventilationunits, the servo motors to adjust the ventilation flap valves may becontrolled from only one thermostat and/or hygrometer arranged in theroom to be ventilated eventually with the interposition of a centralcontrol unit. In this case, there may be provided as well only onesingle servo motor for the actuation of the flap valves of all theventilation aggregates, said servo motor transferring the adjustingmovements to all the air guiding flap valves via cord, wire, pulley orthe like, for instance a cardan shaft. Also the actuation of the blowermotors of the ventilation units arranged in a room to be ventilated maybe controlled from only one single thermostat arranged in the room,eventually via a central control unit.

In the following, the invention will be described in more detail by wayof the examples of embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, but isnot restricted to these embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic sectional view taken on one embodiment of theinvention with a cooling and moistening plant fitted inside the freshair intake ducts provided at the outside wall of the building;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic partially sectional view of the ventilatingdevice of FIG. 1, from outside and looking in the direction of the arrowA;

FIG. 3 shows the drive of the adjustable air guiding flap valves toadjust the proportion of air circulated at several ventilation unitswithin the room of a building by means of only one servo motor;

FIG. 3a shows a perspective view of some details of the embodiment shownin FIG. 3, however in a bigger scale and seen from a differentview-point;

FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of the embodiment in accordance withFIGURES 1-2.

The ventilation unit shown in FIGS. 1-4 essentially consists of an innerhousing 7 fitted inside the room of the building 1 at the building wall3, an intermediate housing 2 extending through an opening in thebuilding wall 3, and an outer housing 31 The intermediate housing 2serves as a mounting frame and is pushed outwardly from the inside ofthe housing through an opening provided in the wall 3.

The intermediate housing 2 and the outer housing 39 are subdivided by apreferably horizontal separation wall 4 into an upper fresh air duct 11and a lower used air exhaust duct 6. The fresh air duct 11 is continuedon the upper part of the inner housing 7 and merges with a funnel member12 which terminates in a supply air outlet opening or a supply airoutlet gap 14. The housing 7 and the funnel member 12 are closed at thetop by means of a sheet metal cover 13. In case the inner housing 7 andthe funnel member 12 terminates just below the ceiling 19 of the room 1of the building, the sheet metal cover 13 may be eliminated and replacedby the ceiling 19. The lower terminal wall 22 of the funnel member 1extends obliquely upwardly while the lateral walls of the funnel memberare expanding towards the outlet opening 14 in the form of a fanstarting from the edge 21.

Inside the inner housing 7, there are provided a vertical used air duct9, with a blower 8 preferably designed as an axial flow blower arrangedtherein, said blower sucking used air from the room 1 of the buildingthrough an inlet opening disposed below the lower edge of the used airduct and spaced through some distance above the bottom of the room ofthe building.

A double-armed air flap valve 17 is supported in the inner housing 7 inthe vicinity of the separation wall 4 with both flap valve halves 15 18capable of rotatable movement about an axis 44. The flap valve halves 15and 18 are inclined with respect to each other for instance by about inorder to improve the guidance of the air and to increase the stabilityof the air guiding flap valve 17. The flap valve half 15 of this flapvalve 17, in the position as shown in FIGURE 1, divides the used airduct 9 from a circulating or return air duct 16, which merges into thefresh air duct 11 and the funnel member 12. In this position as shown inFIGURE 1, the entire amount of used air sucked from the room 1 of thebuilding by the blower 8 flows from the used air duct 9 to the exhaustduct 6. There is a used air baffle 27 arranged at the end of saidexhaust duct 6, said bafile 27 deflecting the used air upwardly where itflows upwardly into the open atmosphere through the blow-out opening 5.

The outer housing 30 is provided with two lateral fresh air intake ducts36 which are arranged at both sides of the used air exhaust duct 6 andwhich are extending downwardly in such a manner that the inflow openings37 thereof are disposed below the used blow-out opening 5 and outsidethe outflow region of the used air.

Cooling and moistening units are arranged inside the lateral fresh airintake ducts 36 to cool and moisten the incoming fresh-air stream, saidcooling and mo'istening units consisting of spray nozzles 38 adapted tobe suppled with a cooling liquid, for enstance water, via a line 39 independence upon the actuation of a magnetic valve 40, and mats effectiveas filters. A packet of mats 42 formed of several filter mats isdisposed in front of the spray nozzles 38 when looking in the directionof the flow of the fresh air. As the cooling liquid, especially water,is sprayed out from the spray nozzles contrary to the direction of flowof the fresh air, the mats of the packet of mats 42 are wetted withcooling liquid when the nozzles are performing their spraying operation.The sucked-in fresh air must flow through this packet of mats thuscausing on the one hand an effective cooling of the incoming fresh airowing to partial evaporation of the cooling liquid and, on the otherhand, changing the degree of humidity of the fresh air stream.

Following this, the fresh air stream flows through the curtain ofcoo-ling liquid sprayed by the nozzles 38 thus causing another coolingand another increase in the degree of humidity of the fresh air. Thereis a filter mat 41 disposed behind the spray nozzles 38 when looking inthe direction of flow, said mat preventing liquid droplets from beingentrained in the stream of fresh air.

Control of this cooling and moistening unit formed by the spray nozzles38 and the filter mats 41, 42 is suitably effected in dependence upon athermostat arranged in the room of the building to be ventilated, saidthermostat opening or closing the magnetic valve 40.

Owing to the suction resulting from the blower 8, there is a slightvacuum generated in the room 1 of the building because of which freshair flows into the room 1 through the inlet opening 37 and the fresh airlateral duct 36, the fresh air intermediate duct 11, the funnel member12 and the fresh air outlet gap 14. When deflecting the fresh air fromeach fresh air lateral duct 36 into the fresh air intermediate duct 11another wire grid may additionally be employed.

The fresh air inside the funnel member 12 is guided obliquely upwardlyagainst the ceiling 19 of the room 1 of the building. This ensures thatthe entry of the fresh air stream into the room takes place at a greatdistance from the air currents caused by the blower 8 sucking-in usedair and flowing over the bottom 20, so that hardly any thereof may stillbe seized or deflected by these air currents. In this way it is possiblethat, in spite of the close spacing between the inlet opening and theoutlet opening, the inlet air remains outside the suction zone of theblower 8 and is entirely available for the replacement of used air,whereby the fresh air stream is emitted to large areas of the room.

The flap valve 17 may be swung in a clockwise direction from theposition as shown on FIG. 1 so that the used air duct 9 is more or lessconnected with the circulating air duct 16 and thus with the fresh airduct 11. The used air exhaust duct 6 is partially closed by the sameflap valve half 15 in proportion to the said release. Now, the blower 8supplies only a portion of the used air it has sucked-in into the openatmosphere. Another portion of this used air is returned to tne room 1of the building via the circulating or return air duct 16 and the funnelmember 12. The mixing of the two portions takes place in the device andnot only in the room of the building.

The fresh air duct 11 is more or less closed by the flap valve half 18in an extent corresponding to the extent in which in this movement ofthe flap valve 17 the used air duct 9 is connected with the circulationair duct 16 and separated from the exhaust duct 6 by the flap valve half15. This arrangement guarantees a decrease of the cross sectional areaof the fresh air intake duct 11 in correspondence with the charge of thefresh air stream with used air and thus a reduction in the respectiveamount of the incoming air. The range of adjustment of the flap valve 18extends from complete closure of the used air exhaust duct 6 to theposition shown in FIG. 1, in which the used air duct 6 is completelyseparated from the circulating duct 16. The flap valve 17 is preferablyinfinitely adjustable through the entire range of pivotal movement.

The adjustment of the flap valve 17 and thus the adjustment of the ratioof the fresh air supplied to the used air circulated is suitablyeffected in dependence upon a thermostat and/ or a hydgrometer arrangedin the room of the building 1. In this arrangement it does not actuallymatter whether each ventilating unit has associated therewith a specialservo motor for the actuation of the flap valve or whether the actuationis effected from only one servo motor via corresponding transfer organs.

FIG. 3 illustrates such a device, in which the flap valves of severalventilation devices are actuated by a centrally arranged servo mot-or48. There is a pulley 45 arranged on the pivotal axis 44 of the flapvalve of each ventilation unit by means of which a cable 46 is guided,said cable being deviated by means of two deviating rollers 47 which arerotatably supported in a bracket 28. This bracket is fastened to anystationary member, especially the inner housing 7, the servo motor 48 isarranged stationarily by means of a supporting bracket 43 and actuatesin the one or other direction a rotatably supported sprocket wheel 32the teeth of which are in mesh with a chain 33. Tightening screws 34 arefastened to both ends of the said chain 33, with the two free ends of acable 49 being fastened to said tightening screws '34, for instance,with the aid of books 24, the cable 49 is deviated via a deviatingroller arrangement 50 the roller of which (several rollers may beemployed as well) is rotatably supported in a stationarily arrangedbracket 35.

The length of the cable 49 may be changed by means of the tighteningscrews 34, and thus the tension thereof varied.

The two ends of each cable 46 of each pulley 45 are fastened to bothends of the continuous cable 49 with the aid of some fastening means 29,for instance clamping means. In this manner, the individual flap valves17 are moved into the one or other direction via their shafts 44 byrotation of the sprocket wheel 32 into the one or other direction bymeans of the servo motor 48.

If there are several ventilation units associated with one and the sameroom of a building, in accordance with the invention, control of theflap valves may also be effected in dependence upon a thermostat and/orhygrometer arranged in the room of the building, in which case a centralcontrol unit may be interposed in the control arrangement, if requiredor desired.

What we claim is:

1. A ventilation unit comprising an inner housing adapted to be mountedon the inside of a wall of a room to be ventilated associated with awall opening defined in said wall, said inner housing having a fresh airintake opening extending over a first part of the cross sectional areaof said wall opening, an outlet opening facing and opening into theinterior of said room, a separation wall defining a first air passagebetween said fresh air intake opening and said outlet opening andextending into said wall opening, an exhaust opening extending over asecond part of the cross sectional area of said wall opening, an inletopening facing and opening into the interior of said room and arrangedin said housing remote from said outlet opening, said separation wallalso defining a second air passage between said exhaust opening and saidinlet opening, a blower having a high pressure side and a low pressureside mounted in said second air passage for drawing a stream of air fromsaid inlet opening to and out of said exhaust opening, said separationwall including a port communicating with said first and second airpassages on said high pressure side of said blower, an adjustable flapvalve defined in said separation wall at said port for movement betweena first position which closes at least partially said exhaust openingand said air intake opening to establish at least a partialrecirculation, and a second position in which said flap valve closessaid port to establish total ventilation, said outlet opening directingair ejected therefrom away from the air stream entering said inletopening, an outer housing adapted to be mounted on the outside of saidwall of said room to be ventilated, said outer housing comprising atleast one fresh air intake duct and one exhaust duct for connecting saidfresh air intake opening and said exhaust opening to the atmosphere, atleast one nozzle member provided with spray openings and arranged withinsaid fresh air intake duct, and conduit means including at least onevalve member for temporarily providing said nozzle member with apressurized cooling liquid.

2. A ventilation unit as claimed in claim 1 in which first filterelements being arranged within said fresh air intake duct between saidnozzle member and the atmosphere.

3. A ventilation unit as claimed in claim 2, in which said sprayopenings of said nozzle member being directed towards said first filterelements.

4. A ventilation unit as claimed in claim 2, in which second filterelements being arranged within said fresh air intake duct between saidnozzle member and said fresh air intake opening.

5. A ventilation unit as claimed in claim 1 in which said fresh airintake opening being arranged above said exhaust opening, said fresh airintake duct comprising at least one lateral duct portion sideways saidexhaust duct and an intermediate duct portion above said exhaust duct,said lateral duct portion opening to the atmosphere downwards, saidexhaust duct projecting beyond intermediate duct portion and opening tothe atmosphere upwards.

6. A ventilation unit as claimed in claim 1 having additionally a shaftrotatably supported in said inner housing and drivingly connected tosaid flap valve, a first pulley drivingly connected to said shaft, afirst traction element engaging said pulley and having two freeends, asecond traction element being arranged in an endless configuration andtightened between first and second direction reversing elements so as toestablish a first and a second end, a servo motor for positively drivingsaid second traction element in one or the other direction, andfastening members for connecting one of said free ends to said first andthe other of said free ends of said first traction element to saidsecond end of said second traction element.

7. A ventilation unit as claimed in claim 6 in which said first and saidsecond ends of said second traction element extending substantially in aparallel relationship with respect to the rotational axis of said flapvalve.

8. A ventilation unit as claimed in claim 7 having in combination secondpulley members being rotatably supported in a stationary bracket elementand being adapted to direct said free ends of said first tractionelement in a substantially parallel relationship with respect to saidfirst and said second ends of said second traction element.

9. A ventilation unit as claimed in claim 6 in which one of saiddirection reversing elements including a rotatably supported sprocketwheel, said servo motor being drivingly connected to said sprocketwheel, and chain engaging said sprocket wheel and fastened adjustably tosaid first and said second ends of said second traction element.

10. A ventilation unit as claimed in claim 1 having in combination anintermediate housing adapted to fit into said Wall opening, andfastening means for fastening said inner housing to the inner side ofsaid intermediate housing and said outer housing to the outer side ofsaid intermediate housing.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS LLOYD L. KING, Primary Examiner.

1. A VENTILATION UNIT COMPRISING AN INNER HOUSING ADAPTED TO BE MOUNTEDON THE INSIDE OF A WALL OF A ROOM TO BE VENTILLATED ASSOCIATED WITH AWALL OPENING DEFINED IN SAID WALL, SAID INNER HOUSING HAVING A FRESH AIRINTAKE OPENING EXTENDING OVER A FIRST PART OF THE CROSS SECTIONAL AREAOF SAID WALL OPENING, AN OUTLET OPENING FACING AND OPENING INTO THEINTERIOR OF SAID ROOM, A SEPARATION WALL DEFINING A FIRST AIR PASSAGEBETWEEN SAID FRESH AIR INTAKE OPENING AND SAID OUTLET OPENING ANDEXTENDING INTO SAID WALL OPENING, AN EXHAUST OPENING EXTENDING OVER ASECOND PART OF THE CROSS SECTIONAL AREA OF SAID WALL OPENING, AN INLETOPENING FACING AND OPENING INTO THE INTERIOR OF SAID ROOM AND ARRANGEDIN SAID HOUSING REMOTE FROM SAID OUTLET OPENING, SAID SEPARATION WALLALSO DEFINING A SECOND AIR PASSAGE BETWEEN SAID EXHAUST OPENING AND SAIDINLET OPENING, A BLOWER HAVING A HIGH PRESSURE SIDE AND A LOW PRESSURESIDE MOUNTED IN SAID SECOND AIR PASSAGE FOR DRAWING A STREAM OF AIR FROMSAID INLET OPENING TO AND OUT OF SAID EXHAUST OPINGING, SAID SEPARATIONWALL INCLUDING A PORT COMMUNICATING WITH SAID FIRST AND SECOND AIRPASSAGES ON SAID HIGH PRESSURE SIDE OF SAID BLOWER, AN ADJUSTABLE FLAPVALVE DEFINED IN SAID SEPARATION WALL AT SAID PORT FOR MOVEMENT BETWEENA FIRST POSITION WHICH CLOSES AT LEAST PARTIALLY SAID EXHAUST OPENINGAND SAID AIR INTAKE OPENING TO ESTABLISH AT LEAST A PARTIALRECIRCULATION, AND A SECOND POSITION IN WHICH SAID FLAP VALVE CLOSESSAID PORT TO ESTABLISH TOTAL VENTILATION, SAID OUTLET OPENING DIRECTINGAIR EJECTED THEREFROM AWAY FROM THE AIR STREAM ENTERING SAID INLETOPENING, AN OUTER HOUSING ADAPTED TO BE MOUNTED ON THE OUTSIDE OF SAIDWALL OF SAID ROOM TO BE VENTILATED, SAID OUTER HOUSING COMPRISING ATLEAST ONE FRESH AIR INTAKE DUCT AND ONE EXHAUST DUCT FOR CONNECTING SAIDFRESH AIR INTAKE OPENING AND SAID EXHAUST OPENING TO THE ATMOSPHERE, ATLEAST ONE NOZZLE MEMBER PROVIDED WITH SPRAY OPENINGS AND ARRANGED WITHINSAID FRESH AIR INTAKE DUCT, AND CONDUIT MEANS INCLUDING AT LEAST ONEVALVE MEMBER FOR TEMPORARILY PROVIDING SAID NOZZLE MEMBER WITH APRESSURIZED COOLING LIQUID.